Carlo Giuseppe Oddone

Although Carlo Giuseppe Oddone apprenticed for several years at the Benedetto Gioffredo Rinaldi workshop, his more formative training took place in England, where he traveled to work for Frederick William Chanot in 1889. In light of Chanot's background ...Read More in the French tradition, Oddone's experience in his workshop gave him an entirely different perspective on methods of construction and repair than he would have absorbed in Turin. He returned to Italy, however, and in 1892 opened his own shop on the Via Po, where he performed restoration work and began to build his own instruments. The turn of the century and decade following were quite productive for Oddone despite periodic financial insecurity.

The early work in particular owes much to Chanot, especially the adherence to 'del Gesù' models and the distinctive shape of the head, which remained virtually constant throughout Oddone's career. Thin purfling set far from the edges is another feature of Oddone's early 20th Century work, and this type of edgework was copied by other Turinese makers of the period. His violins often bear a striking yellow-orange varnish and exhibit some of the most outstanding craftsmanship of the Piedmontese school. Read Less

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